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Tuesday, March 29, 2016

I Can Learn to Pray is a book written by Holly Hawkins Shivers and illustrated by Becka Moor. I Can Learn to Pray is a follow up to Holly Hawkins Shivers' previous book, I Can Learn the Bible. In I Can Learn to Pray, the emphasis is on learning how to pray (& listen) to God.(The author intends that the child or children reading this will have a blank journal to accompany it, along with an adult to help guide them through.)

I Can Learn to Pray will take your kids (& you) through 52 prompts. It is intended to be used as a year-long devotional (taking one week to study and learn about each topic). The pages in I Can Learn to Prayare full-color.

Each devotion in I Can Learn to Prayis marked with "Week 1, Week 2, ...Week 52" and is a total of 4 pages long. Each devotion starts out with a full page illustration of the prompt for the week followed by 3 pages discussing the topic/verses, including a specific prayer prompt. The illustrations are cute and done in fun (but somewhat muted) colors. The devotionals have stories and/or examples that are great to help kids grasp the concept being shared.

I think that I Can Learn to Prayis a great resource for families and is simple enough that it can easily be used by anyone.

FTC Declaration: The publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book or advanced reading copy through the BookLook Bloggers book review bloggers program. This does not change the fact that I will give my honest opinion in my reviews.

I've got this stamped journaling card taped in where I can read about the death of Jesus. It serves as a reminder that He is no longer dead - He is risen! (He is risen, indeed.) For this one I combined two stamp sets from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps - The Lord is Risen and Worship the Lord.

Friday, March 25, 2016

The Under the Sea Holy Bible, NIrV is a new hardcover Bible from Zondervan/Zonderkidz. The hardcover has a shiny foil background with a few light glitter glue accents.

The Under the Sea Holy Bible, NIrVis the New International Reader's Version (NIrV) version of the Bible. The NIrV is a simplified version of the NIV, written at approximately a 3rd grade reading level. The NIrV is composed of smaller, easy-to-understand words in shorter sentences than the traditional NIV.

At the back of the Under the Sea Holy Bible, NIrV are two study helps: a 5-page dictionary (words & definitions, but no verse references) and lists compiling 92 "Great Bible Stories" (with verse references). The "Great Bible Stories" lists would be great to use for monthly reading plans.

The "flair" of the Under the Sea Holy Bible, NIrV comes in with the full-color pages that are placed throughout the Bible. (The pages are a bit thicker than the text pages.) At the beginning of the Under the Sea Holy Bible, NIrV is an insert containing the presentation page backed with a "Books of the Bible" page. The "Books of the Bible" spread shows all of the books of the Bible, including their category (Law, History, Poetry, Gospels, Letters, etc.).

There are three other full-color (front and back) pages inserted throughout the text in the Under the Sea Holy Bible, NIrV. Here are the topics covered in the inserts:

In The Berenstain Bears Easter Sunday we follow the Bear family as they get ready and head off to church on Easter Sunday. At church they sing Easter songs and hear a lesson from Preacher Brown on the Easter story. About half of the book is on the topic of eggs, bunnies, and chocolate - and what they have to do with Easter. In my opinion, the topic was addressed and handled in a way that is respectful of differing opinions.

Monday, March 21, 2016

I Can is such a unique book - it is basically an early introduction to memorization and Bible study.

I Can goes through Philippians 4:13, adding one (or two) words at a time and focusing on the new thoughts that are added. One page opening states the words that have been introduced in the verse and the following page opening adds a few thoughts about the word (or words) that have been introduced. For example, when the word "who" is added, the next page says, "Who loves us, protects us, helps us, saves us." Because of the repetition of the verse as words are added, this is a great way to memorize the verse without even focusing on memorization. Hearing it repeatedly will automatically help it sink in as it is read.

I Can is a cute, simple book with a great purpose - great for any family's bookshelf.

FTC Declaration: The publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book or advanced reading copy through the Tyndale Blog Network book review bloggers program. This does not change the fact that I will give my honest opinion in my reviews.

Friday, March 18, 2016

Easter is almost here and I just love to celebrate such a joy-filled holiday.

In our family we try to remember that Easter isn't about eggs, bunnies, or candy, but about the fact that our Lord was raised to life and that He lives! (And we are certainly thankful that He gave us eggs, bunnies, and candy to enjoy.)

These decorated bags are a simple reminder - and as a bonus they hold a little treat.

Each treat bag is topped with a paper doily and tied closed with The Twinery's twine. (I used Solid Marigold and Solid Lilac.)

I love these quick, easy additions to any celebration (just change out the stamped images and these are perfect for any party and/or holiday). Simple to make but add such a great handmade touch.

What I love about Doodletopia Cartoons is that it is a very well-rounded experience in cartoon drawing. It is not limited to one drawing subject (people, animals, etc.) but includes a variety of things to draw, including several types of lettering.

The book is printed in two color scales - grayscale and bluescale. The bluescale words and drawings are helpful tips and guides (such as center lines and eye lines on characters) to help you perfect your cartoons. I love the variety of skills that Doodletopia Cartoons covers, such as the "Draw The Other Half" section. I particularly loved the section "Choose And Design The Animals" where it shows how the same basic shapes can be used to draw two different animals (such as a turtle and an armadillo).

The one major problem that I see with Doodletopia Cartoons is that I have three kids who love to draw (and I do, too!)...and we have one copy of this book.

FTC Declaration: The publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book or advanced reading copy through the Blogging for Books book review bloggers program. This does not change the fact that I will give my honest opinion in my reviews.

Using things like pens and colored pencils come naturally to me - I've been drawing and coloring for as long as I can remember. As someone who has also been papercrafting and stamping for a long time, it just feels right to incorporate some stamps and basic papercrafting supplies as well. I don't intend for the "craft" to take over the focus on what I am reading/creating/journaling about, so I want to keep working with methods and media that feel natural to me.

Most often for my Bible art & journaling I start with something I have read or heard (in a sermon) and a picture or idea just comes to mind. But other times, I hear a song or think of an idea and want to incorporate it into my Bible. For one of my recent entries, I was looking at the Seek Him stamp set from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps and the phrase "to know Him is to love Him" just popped out at me. (No, there is no "is" in the set, but the rest of the words are there. The "is" that I used is from The Lord Is Risen.)

1 John 2:3&5 just seemed like the place to put this. It says (NIV):

3 We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands.

5 But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them.

When I was younger, my obedience to God was generally based in fear, but as I have come to know more about Him I have seen how good and loving He is - and I love that. The stamps here said what I wanted to say, and I didn't want to add a bunch of fuss - just a hint of color with the hearts.

Another of my recent Bible entries came from a thought that came to mind - a song, actually.

"I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart."

(Where?)

I wanted to create something in the margins that felt joyful, so I picked two colors (for the dots) that bring me joy and just went to stamping "joy" all over. (The dots are actually created by using the back side of the "o" stamp from the Cold Coffee Alphabet.) The "joy" words are from a stamp set (coming soon!) called Choose Faith and I added a few dots and other accents with a white Sharpie paint pen.

Philippians 4:4 (NIV) says:

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice!

Repeat stamping is soothing for me and it was fun to just sing a joyful song as I was stamping away.

Like other "The Legend of..." books that I have read, The Legend of the Easter Robin is a story within a story. This story follows a girl (Tressa) as he learns about the legend of the origin of the robin's red breast (an old Pennsylvania Dutch tale) from her Gran. Through the story of the Easter robin, Tressa learns about the importance of trusting in God's care and of thankfulness for Jesus' sacrifice. The illustrations in The Legend of the Easter Robin are big, colorful, and beautiful to look at.

Although this is definitely a legend (and not a true story), I love that The Legend of the Easter Robin has such a focus on trust in God and remembering that Jesus' sacrifice and resurrection are the point of Easter. I also enjoyed learning about the tradition of oschter-foggel (Easter birds created from dyed eggs) which I don't recall hearing about before.

FTC Declaration: The publisher has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book or advanced reading copy. This does not change the fact that I will give my honest opinion in my reviews.

Monday, March 7, 2016

The Play-Along Bible is a unique storybook Bible written by Bob Hartman and illustrated by Susie Poole. In The Play-Along Bible, there are not only Bible stories, but also prompts throughout each story to really bring the story to life (and to encourage physical activity and imagination). The text of each story is in black, with the prompts being a different color (so you can easily differentiate as you are reading).

Stories and songs with hand motions and vocal feedback are great ways to excite children, and this book does just that. The 50 stories in The Play-Along Bible are short (one page each) and the illustrations are absolutely adorable.

I can see The Play-Along Bible being a fantastic resource for Bible studies and classes for children, as well as for homeschooling and general family reading time with little ones.

FTC Declaration: Tyndale House Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book or advanced reading copy. This does not change the fact that I will give my honest opinion in my reviews.

Friday, March 4, 2016

You may remember my "Lazy Girl's Cross Stitch" project from awhile back...and today this lazy girl is back with some "Lazy Girl String Art".

(Well, I guess it's technically twine art.)

I love the fun string art that is popping up everywhere these days, but even though I am a carpenter's daughter, I am not really one to bust out the boards and nails for a small home decor project.

But I did have some canvas boards and a heavy duty hole punch, so I decided to give it a whirl...

I started by drawing simple heart shapes onto the back of my canvas boards (I used some dies I had and traced them, but you could easily freehand them) and then used my heavy duty hole punch to punch some holes along the traced shapes.

I then threaded some of The Twinery's Solid Lilac and Solid Pink Sorbet twines through the holes and across the hearts. I finished off each heart by backstitching the outer edge, to make the heart shape easily visible.

Tip: If you are going to be doing a lot of threading on a project, invest a little bit of time into adding some tape to the end of the twine (like you would see on the end of a shoelace). It will make things go so much quicker and easier...and no fraying!

These are fun and easy to do, and make great decor pieces - just switch up the shapes and twine colors for a new look!

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All of the content on this website is Copyright by Tifany DeGough. (This includes designs, ideas, creations, text, and pictures.) I have posted my creations to inspire you and for your enjoyment. You may not use my designs for publication or contests.

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